Mrs Antell, a mother-of-three had taken the family pet to her mother in law’s home in Warrington, Cheshire and was celebrating her six-year-old son Lincoln’s birthday when they got a call to tell them what had happened.

She told the Daily Mail: “Elvis, who was nearly nine, was just in the front garden of my mother-in-law Margaret's house and the gate was shut.

“We were celebrating my son Lincoln's sixth birthday. Margaret rang my husband, Steve, and she said, "Elvis is dead, Elvis is dead, someone has killed him". We just got in the car and drove there.

“Someone said the dog had been walking past and Elvis barked and the dog literally barged into the gate and bashed it open, grabbed him by the head and took him into the street shaking him and literally took his head off.”

The incident took place at 4.30pm on Saturday in Warrington, Cheshire.

The dog has now been tracked down and is likely to be destroyed. The woman in the picture is not believed to be the owner of the animal, but had been walking it for a friend. Under the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 anyone who lets a dog become dangerously out of control could face a prison term of six months.